Computer Effects Insult Your Intelligence

One of my favorite movies is the incredibly disgusting The Thing from director John Carpenter. For a taste of what it’s about here’s the hilarious musical version. My apologies for invoking your concept of taste in combination with the following.

Anyway, while The Thing is pretty gross so are all the effects. That is, they’re obviously fake. But who cares? We except that they’re fake and let ourselves go on with the story and gasp and scream and you know, movie magic. And then there are computer effects. I generally hate grade B computer effects in movies like this and you probably do too. I think it’s because they insult our intelligence. They’re trying too hard. They’re presented as if, hey we’ve finally fooled you! And they haven’t.

If you’re not doing anything this Halloween and haven’t seen it yet, check out John Carpenter’s The Thing and enjoy — well, enjoy is probably the wrong word — the incredible practical special effects.